Honors and Awards

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2017

  • Professor Eric Becklin has been selected for the American Astronomical Society’s 2017 Henry Norris Russell Lectureship. The prize is given annually to an astronomer on the basis of a “lifetime of eminence in astronomical research". Click here to see his talk given at the AAS meeting in January 2018.
  • Professor Andrea Ghez received the Sven Berggren Prize, the Royal Physiographic Society's prize lecture in Lund, Sweden.


    • 2015

    • Professor Andrea Ghez has been awarded the 2015 Bakerian Medal, the Royal Society's premiere prize lecture in the physical sciences.
    • Assistant Professor Smadar Naoz has received the Sloan Fellowship.
    • Assistant Professor Smadar Naoz has rececived the American Astronomical Society's 2015 Annie Jump Cannon Award for "outstanding research and promise for future research."


    2014
    Class of strange objects

    • Prof. Andrea Ghez is the first woman to receive the Crafoord Prize. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Crafoord Prize in Astronomy 2012 to Reinhard Genzel, Max-Planck-Institut for extraterrestrische Physik, Garching, Germany and Andrea Ghez, University of California, Los Angeles, USA. “For their observations of the stars orbiting the galactic centre, indicating the presence of a supermassive black hole”. Read more about the Crafoord Price and The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
    • Graduate student Breann Sitarski was awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program Honorable Mention.
    • Graduate student Kim Phifer was awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program.
    • Dr. Tuan Do was awarded the Dunlap Fellowship, where he will carry his postdoctoral research at the Dunlap Institute, University of Toronto.
    • Prof. Andrea Ghez was elected to the American Philosophical Society. The American Philosophical Society is a scholarly organization that promotes useful knowledge in the sciences and humanities through excellence in scholarly research.


    2012


    2011

    • Dr. Jessica Lu was awarded an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship (AAPF). The AAPF award funds a three-year integrated program of independent research and education, which Dr. Lu carried at the Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii.
    • Graduate student Sylvana Yelda received the UCLA Dissertation Year Fellowship.
    • Graduate student Ian Crossfield received the UCLA Dissertation Year Fellowship.
    • Graduate student Anna Boehle received the UCLA Cota Robles Fellowship.


    2010

    • Graduate student Breann Sitarski was awarded the Charles Geoffrey Hilton excellence in astronomy award given by UCLA.
    • Graduate student Tuan Do received the UCLA Dissertation Year Fellowship.
    • Graduate student Breann Sitarski was awarded the Chambliss Astronomy Student Achievement Award, given by the American Astronomical Society. The award is given to recognize exemplary research by undergraduate and graduate students who present at one of the poster sessions at the meetings of the AAS.
    • Prof. Andrea Ghez received the UCLA Outstanding Teaching Award.


    2009

    • Prof. Eric Becklin was elected as a fellow to The American Academy of Arts and Sciences. This is an honorary society that recognizes achievement in the natural sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities. Founded in 1780, the American Academy has served the nation as a champion of scholarship, civil dialogue, and useful knowledge. The Academy Fellows include many of the most accomplished scholars and practitioners worldwide.
    • Graduate student Breann Sitarski was awarded the Rudnick-Abelmann excellence in Astronomy Award, given by UCLA.


    2008

    • Dr. Leo Meyer was awarded the German Research Foundation (DFG) Postdoctoral Fellowship to come work at UCLA. These research fellowships are intended to help early career researchers to conduct a defined project at a location of their choice in a country other than Germany and to use it as an opportunity to familiarize themselves with new research methods or to bring a large project to a conclusion.
    • Prof. Andrea Ghez was awarded the prestigious MacArthur fellowship. The MacArthur Fellows Program awards unrestricted fellowships to talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction. There are three criteria for selection of Fellows: exceptional creativity, promise for important future advances based on a track record of significant accomplishment, and potential for the fellowship to facilitate subsequent creative work. Prof. Ghez was awarded this fellowship for opening important windows of galactic observation by overcoming previous limitations of ground-based instruments.
    • Dr. Jessica Lu was awarded the Millikan Prize Postdoctoral Fellowship in observational Astronomy at Caltech.
    • Dr. Andrea Stolte received the Emmy Noether Fellowship for young researchers initiated by the German Science Foundation. She is now based at the Argelander Institute for Astronomy at the University of Bonn. The Emmy Noether Programme supports researchers in achieving independence at an early stage of their scientific careers.
    • Prof. Andrea Ghez was awarded the Helen Hogg Distinguished Visitorship given by the University of Toronto.


    2005

    • Graduate student Seth Hornstein received the UCLA Dissertation Year Fellowship.
    • Graduate student Jessica Lu was awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program.


    2004

    • Prof. Mark Morris received the UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award.
    • Graduate student Seth Hornstein received the UCLA Physics and Astronomy Alumni Alliance (PAAL) Outstanding Graduate Student Award.
    • Prof. Andrea Ghez was elected as a mamber of the National Academy of Sciences. The National Academy of Sciences is a non-profit society of distinguished scholars that was established by an Act of Congress, signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. The National Academy of Sciences provides advice to the nation on matters related to science and technology. Scientists are elected by their peers to membership in the National Academy of Sciences for outstanding contributions to research.
    • Prof. Brad Hansen received the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship. The Sloan Research Fellowships seek to stimulate fundamental research by early-career scientists and scholars of outstanding promise. These two-year fellowships are awarded yearly to 126 researchers in recognition of distinguished performance and a unique potential to make substantial contributions to their field.
    • Prof. Andrea Ghez was awarded the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize in the Physical Sciences, awarded at Tel Aviv University. This prize is awarded alternatively in the fields of Physics and Chemistry. The prize is intended to encourage dedication to science, originality and excellence by rewarding outstanding young scientists.
    • Prof. Andrea Ghez was elected as a fellow to The American Academy of Arts and Sciences . This is an honorary society that recognizes achievement in the natural sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities. Founded in 1780, the American Academy has served the nation as a champion of scholarship, civil dialogue, and useful knowledge. The Academy Fellows include many of the most accomplished scholars and practitioners worldwide.


    2003

    • Dr. Gaspard Duchene was one of the three recipients of the Schwinger Adjunct Faculty Fellowship to work at UCLA. The Schwinger Fellow is an appointment at the rank of Adjunct Assistant Professor.


    1999

    • Prof. Andrea Ghez received the Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award given by the American Physical Society. The award is aimed to recognize and enhance outstanding achievement by a woman physicist in the early years of her career, and to provide opportunities for her to present these achievements to others through public lectures in the spirit of Maria Goeppert Mayer.


    1998

    • Prof. Andrea Ghez received the Newton Lacy Pierce Prize given by the American Astronomical Society for outstanding achievement, over the past five years, in observational astronomical research based on measurements of radiation from an astronomical object.


    1996

    • Prof. Andrea Ghez received the Packard Fellowship. The Packard Fellowships for Science and Engineering is awarded to promising early-career scientists and engineers. Packard Fellows are encouraged to think big and look at complex issues with a fresh perspective.
    • Prof. Andrea Ghez received the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship. The Sloan Research Fellow ships seek to stimulate fundamental research by early-career scientists and scholars of outstanding promise. These two-year fe llowships are awarded yearly to 126 researchers in recognition of distinguished performance and a unique potential to make subs tantial contributions to their field.